Smile in a Call center phone interaction

Smile in a Call center phone interaction

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A smile in a Call center phone interaction is a key step to improving customer service and CSAT scores.

Why am I so confident that by simply smiling there is an improvement in call quality? It’s proven. At GuateCall, our nearshore call center located in Guatemala City, Central America, we have listened to thousands of calls of customer service agents that are smiling and those customer service agents that are not smiling. We’ve even tested the same agents and could clearly hear when they were smiling and when they were not.

What is the major difference? It’s the tone on the call. There is a clear difference in the customer service representatives’ tone when he or she is smiling as compared to when not. What is even more interesting is that there is a marked difference in the reaction of the customer which has a direct relationship to the agent’s tone. Customers seem to be more willing to listen and are more open to engage with customer service representatives that are smiling.

Joy breaks all physical and spiritual boundaries. That is a powerful concept. When applied to day to day life, joy gives the sense of control and knowledge that we can overcome any perceived difficulty we may encounter.

We all want to be joyful and happy, but for many people it doesn’t come naturally. Even those happy go lucky people have moments that they are just not inclined to be happy. So how do we maintain our cheery disposition when providing customer service to our clients? The fastest and easiest thing to do is smile! Even a not so genuine smile is better than nothing. A call center colleague advises trainees to look at your face and ask if you would want to talk to yourself if you weren’t smiling.  The most common thought process of new trainees is, we’re on calls, the customers can’t see us so why does it matter? An agent needs to be recorded and hear themselves speak while smiling and also when they are not smiling. Play the recording to the other trainees and ask them to decide which recording sounds friendlier, more confident and which has a nicer tone. This process ends all debates.

The next step is to consistently keep agents smiling throughout the day, so keep the call center floor loose, send funny messages to keep agents happy (an unexpected message at an unexpected time is usually best), create a seating arrangement that allows agents to help each other, create competition and excitement on the call center floor and make sure supervisors are there for their team members at all time.

Every company wants to improve their customer’s experience. Before creating elaborate plans and making major investments, make sure your team is smiling & happy. It’s the number one way to make the biggest and fastest impact on the customer experience, oh and it’s the least expensive as well, so try it!

Call Center in Guatemala Central America

Call Center in Guatemala Central America

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Why choose a call center in Guatemala Central America as your outsourcing location? In today’s business reality, outsourcing customer service has become a standard not only for larger companies but medium and smaller companies as well. When looking to outsource there are a myriad of options so choosing wisely has the biggest impact to the success of the outsourcing relationship.

If you are outsourcing less than 500 agents, your best bet is to outsource with a medium to smaller outsource provider. The reason I say this is because it’s better to be a more significant client for an outsource provider as opposed to a small customer for a mammoth multinational company. The attention your business will receive and the management that you will be provided with will outclass middle and lower management that you will be dealing with from larger multinational outsourcers.

Guatemala makes a perfect nearshore outsourcing destination due to the fact that GuateCall is situated here J. Outside of that, there are some key benefits to Guatemala as an outsourcing destination such as:

  • The largest workforce in Central America
  • Over 70% of the population is under the age of 30
  • Over 15 universities with more than 170,000 enrolled students
  • Central Time Zone
  • Cultural affinity to the U.S.
  • Quick direct flights from multiple U.S. cities
  • Fastest internet connectivity speeds to U.S.
  • Experienced talent that has serviced multiple Fortune 100 companies

So as you can see, Guatemalan call center agents are not only more educated than the majority of their counterparts but also have the experience dealing with major accounts so the training time as well as understanding of the service levels required are already understood. Guatemalans also have a very neutral Spanish accent which allows them to be more easily understood by Spanish speakers from all over the world.

Guatemalan call center agents share a strong cultural affinity to the United States and Canada. This is due to the large amount of people who travel to and from Guatemala every year. Many Guatemalan call center agents have family members living in the U.S. and Canada and are very familiar with the culture. Guatemala also has lots of U.S. Franchises as well so from food, clothing, cinema and much more, Guatemalan’s are very much in touch with the same brands and services as their North American counterparts.

Company executives have realized the outsourcing gem that Guatemala has become and with cost savings of up to 50% from their U.S. counterparts, the ROI of outsourcing to Guatemala is a no brainer. So when you are looking for highly qualified, tenured agents that are bilingual in English and Spanish, look no further than Guatemala Central America.

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual services located In Guatemala, Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 Ext 116 or by e-mail Perry@Guatecall.com

Outsourcing Customer Service and Bake sales?

Outsourcing Customer Service and Bake sales?

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Outsourcing Customer Service and Bake sales?

What does outsourcing customer service, AI and customer experience have to do with a bake sale?

As my wife and I walked by a bagel shop Sunday morning, there was a table set up with all kinds of baked goods and a couple of teenagers in front of it. As we passed by one kid said good morning to which we replied good morning and kept walking. As the other kid saw that we weren’t stopping, he quickly said good morning and followed up by asking if we would like to help them fly to New York for a competition.  What kind of competition, my wife asked, which got the kid to smile big and explain what they are flying to New York for. It was an interaction that lasted only a few minutes, but it was effective. It got the results the kids needed, which was money, but it also got the word out about what they are doing and its importance.

As we continued on my wife and I discussed that we really don’t see many bake sales anymore. I mean, we hardly see one and yet they used to be so popular just a few years back. It’s a sign of the times. People today are on social media and everything is done online, at least that’s what it seems like. Maybe most kids even do their fundraising online, getting their family and their friends to put the word out on social media. Is it effective? Yes, it’s very effective, but they would not have gotten my support or countless others that Sunday morning if they didn’t set up that table and speak to us.

So what does a bake sale have to do with customer service outsourcing, AI and customer experience?

I  saw a lot of similarities between the outsourcing of the customer service experience, AI  and the bake sale. Here are just a few thoughts that crossed my mind:

Customer service outsourcing varies greatly from one company and even one agent to another

Both the kids we engaged with were nice and seemed like great people, but one in particular was more engaging and got us interested in their story. This got me thinking about the call center agents in an outsourced call center. They might all be polite and follow protocol, but are they engaging? Do they believe in the brand enough to transmit the story in a convincing way? Are they part of the cause or doing just enough to stay on the account?

Not everyone engages the same way

We all know social media is a powerful tool. The amount of engagement that happens is astounding but it also takes a big effort to stand out from the crowd and even more so to do it in a way that gets people to engage. The reality is if I saw those kids story on social media, I wouldn’t have donated to their cause. It wasn’t personal. It was nice having a conversation with a person. Learning about what they were interested in and being able to help. Could they have raised money strictly on social media? Possibly, but they would have missed out on a lot of people that walked by them that day.

AI versus personal touch for the best customer experience

We’ve all read about how AI will replace customer service representatives. I personally believe that AI has a role to play in enhancing customer service but will not replace a live customer service agent. When it comes to customer experience, we need to engage the customer in the manner they would like to be engaged. Sometimes automation is the way and sometimes human interaction is best. The key to a great customer experience is to allow people the comfort of engaging their way. The first kid that said hello to us at the bake sale was great, but not engaging. The second got the results they were looking for but in a way that we felt good about the experience. We need to remember that when automating processes, these automations should be done to enhance an experience, not for budget cutting or other such reasons.

We should always remember that the customer is the heart of the business. If we focus on the customer and deliver what they want in the way they want it, we are bound to succeed in implementing a great customer experience.

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual services located In Guatemala, Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 Ext 116 or by e-mail Perry@Guatecall.com

Some Companies Are Not Into Outsourcing

Some Companies Are Not Into Outsourcing

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Some companies are not into outsourcing. I get it. Actually, I don’t get it, because when the most successful companies in most, if not all verticals outsource, there is a reason. A company can’t be good at everything. We all know the old saying “Do what you do best and outsource the rest” But why do most people have such a hard time with this simple concept?

There is a big difference between outsourcing personal tasks and outsourcing company departments such as customer service, marketing, IT and the like and yet we generally use the same thought process for both when deciding if and when to outsource. What causes this thought process? Why are we hesitant to focus on our core strengths and outsource the rest? It comes down to management’s fear of giving up “control”. It’s a trait most of us have grown up with from childhood and carried it into our adult working world. We try to give logical reasons as to why we do this:

  • It’s easier to control in house
  • Outsourcing won’t do as good a job as an in house team
  • It’s too expensive; We can do it cheaper in house.

There is some level of logic to each of these thought processes and that is why it’s so tempting to follow them, however for most companies, nothing could be further than the truth. Here are some thoughts in the customer service / call center space that GuateCall, our near shore call center company, specializes in.

Let’s take the first objection, “It’s easier to control in house.” With the U.S. unemployment rate at an all time low and employee turnover constantly increasing, it takes a lot of effort to hold on to good employees. Employees aren’t just working for your business, they are working for their immediate supervisor. How much time and effort does a company need to train and maintain a management team working in the “trenches” that will embrace your company culture and maintain a staff of people under them to work the way the company wants. That alone should point to the difficulty that lies ahead for companies controlling everything in house. Add to that recruitment, training, meetings, technology and space for a changing number of employees. The monetary cost, the time spent consistently following up and creating continuous improvements is anything but easy.

The next objection is that an outsourcer won’t do as good a job as an in house team. From personal experience I know this to be false. Nothing beats having an experienced contact center that was created to focus specifically on servicing clients using the latest technology as well as time tested methods. A good outsourcing BPO partner has a management team in place with years of experience and a staff that has served multiple clients for years. A successful call center partnership creates an environment where the employees feel that they are working for the ultimate client, not the outsourcer. Outsourced call centers have consistently proven that due to their specific business focus, experience and constant improvements, they will outperform in house call centers in most instances.

The third part of the equation is it’s cheaper to run a call center in house. If looking at strictly an employees’ hourly wage, it may be true, however we all know that is only the beginning of the costs. The recruiting, training, management, liability, space, equipment, insurance, taxes, payroll, sick days, turnover, the list goes on and on. When you add up all that, outsourcing becomes a lot more attractive. In today’s global environment a business can also reduce costs by choosing a near shore call center, like GuateCall, over an on shore option. There are pluses and minuses to each option, but in general a high end near shore call center will offer on shore quality at a discounted rate. This gives a business a very attractive option for maintaining high service levels while controlling and even reducing costs.

The right outsourcing partnership allows businesses to focus on their core competencies and outsource the other work. If your company is in need of outsourcing customer service by phone, chat or email, reach out to GuateCall for high end service with affordable pricing.

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish call center services located In Guatemala, Central America. Whether through voice or chat, we can provide superior services to your organization. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and Call Center services in Latin America, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com.

Outsourcing Customer Service to Latin America

Outsourcing Customer Service to Latin America

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Outsourcing customer service is one of the most crucial parts of any business.  With today’s competitive business environment and more educated customers as well as the ease of finding information about products and companies, the key differentiation between one company and another is the customer experience and interaction with its clients. Whether it’s through voice, web chat, email or social media interaction, customer experience is the most important element in the success or failure of a company. This is why it is so important to have the best possible relationship with your customer experience outsource provider.

The management of your company and the outsourcing call center must be on the same wave length and become an extension of the business. Good customer service can often be the key to increased sales, customer satisfaction, customer retention and brand reputation.

On the other hand, poor customer service or for that matter even marginal or inconsistent customer service through all the different channels at the customer’s disposal often leads to unhappy customers, diminished brand reputation, loss of customers and poor sales. For these reasons alone, whenever a company decides to outsource their customer service, they need to partner with a provider that will make their company’s customers a top priority.

There are some basic guidelines when searching for a call center:
Credibility:
Credibility matters when a business is entrusting another business with an important task. For this reason, see how long the company has been in the outsourcing business.
Also ask for some client testimonials and recommendations as well as from industry experts.

Skills:
What is the English fluency of the call center’s existing agents?  Since bilingual services are so important for the U.S. market today, do the agents speak Spanish as well?  What is the accent level like?  Spanish accents are also different from country to country.  Try to pick a country that has a neutral accent.  Guatemala, in Central America, is known as a top location for neutral bilingual accents.

Customer service skills need agents that are customer centric by nature.  Some key characteristics are being humble, polite and great listeners.  Contact center reps who are outside of the box thinkers and can come up with creative solutions are always a benefit and the ability to create first call resolutions using all the skill sets above is of key importance to not only the customer experience but controlling the costs of the company.

Location:
Geographical Advantage: If the BPO or contact center is located in time zones that are 7-12 hours difference from the location of the company it is serving, then there is less opportunity to solve management concerns on the fly.  Most top level executives and management work during the day shift so there is a clear need to be located either in the U.S., Canada or for a cost saving and bilingual Spanish support, near shore in Latin America.

Due to the time zone similarity and lower price structure, Latin American and especially Central American call centers have become a popular destination for high level customer service.

Cultural Similarity – Customer service is all about dealing with people. Having a positive customer experience with people becomes much easier when both the customer and the agent are on the same wavelength.  If a customer is looking for items, for example, that just came out that is all the rage, the customer service rep should be on top of those trends and point the customer in the right direction.

Pricing: 
Last but definitely not least, pricing plays a key role in customer service.  There is a need to balance budget with a high a level of customer service and experience.  Many U.S. and Canadian companies are finding that Central America offers a great balance of a highly skilled bilingual workforce coupled with a more cost efficient pricing structure than their local outsource providers.

A Shameless Plug:
If you are looking for a higher quality contact center with a strong focus on the customer relationship, strong training principles and a highly interactive and dedicated management and staff located in Guatemala, Central America, look no further than GuateCall.

We are an American managed BPO and contact center that provides Superior Services.
We believe that every point of contact, from our employees, to our customers and their customers, is an opportunity to make a positive impact on people’s lives.  We work as a seamless extension of your team by integrating our services and management to work hand-in-hand with yours, at every point of contact.

-Our employees become your brand advocates
-Our management team looks for ways to benefit the customer
-Our environment is conducive to happy and lateral-thinking employees

 

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Nearshore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual services located In Guatemala, Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 Ext 116 or by e-mail.

How long does training last in a Contact and Call Center?

How long does training last in a Contact and Call Center?

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I often get asked by potential employees “how long does training last?” It’s funny to see their reaction when I look them straight in the eye and say, “training never ends!”

Now you have to understand, we are a boutique near-shore contact center that pays premium salaries in the BPO space in Guatemala, Central America. We have built a great reputation and so when hiring opportunities become available we get applications from employees of all the major call centers in town. Those employees have gone through the training process of major Fortune 500 companies. Accounts that represent many of the biggest names in the Airline, Hotel, Cruise, Energy, Shipping, Cell phone, Cable, Retail and Internet space.

“Training never ends?” I’m asked. “Never” I respond and I explain GuateCall’s philosophy on training.

When most companies train their employees, they explain about the company, the product or service, the benefits, the system, policies etc etc. They start with classroom training, then side-by-side and then it’s off to the races.

At GuateCall, we compare that philosophy to that of a stone that had a rush of water going over it for a while. What happens to the stone? It starts to get smooth on top and that makes for a good customer experience. But what if you want to change the culture of service? What if you want an awesome customer experience from people that take ownership of the brand? Well that takes a lot more than a rush of water to smooth out the top of the stone. What needs to happen is a consistent drip of water hitting that stone. Drip, drip, drip and drip some more until the water starts penetrating the inside of the stone. From Supervisors, Team-Leads and QA support, everyone drips thought processes and ideas to help support the front line staff in their endeavors. We create classes and seminars to teach new skill sets and so much more. In short, we motivate and challenge our people to learn and be more. So when does training at GuateCall end…Never!

This article was written by Perry Silber, COO of GuateCall. GuateCall is a Near-shore contact center provider of multi-channel bilingual services located In Guatemala, Central America. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 Ext 116 or by e-mail

Some “Let’s get real” questions to ask yourself

Some “Let’s get real” questions to ask yourself

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I am always perplexed by the concept of outsourcing call center services to a company that pays their employees minimum wage. Contact centers should have an added value or higher performance standards to justify the increase in salary. If the same job can be done at a cheaper price with the same quality, than what’s the purpose of outsourcing to that location?

There is no need to fall in love with the city or country you are outsourcing contact center services to. Fall in love with the way your customers are being treated! Fall in love with the value your contact center services provider offers. Being an “American” call center is useless if that’s your whole competitive advantage.

Some “Let’s get real” questions to ask yourself

  • How long will your front line agents stay on the account?
  • Do they see their position as a career or just a way to make some money that’s better than flipping burgers until they find something better?
  • What is the turnover rate?
  • What is the interest level you hear when auditing calls?
  • Do the agents sound like they care about your customers or is it just another call?

If call center companies invest the time to hire, train, motivate, educate and create an environment that creates the service levels that their customer’s desire, they can’t afford to lose their employees because they only pay minimum wage. This leads to question, so do they really spend the time necessary to hire, train, motivate and educate as they should? Can your business afford to have mediocre customer service as your front line representation when your customers contact the company? Scary thought isn’t it.

It’s time to be real when it comes to outsourcing. Don’t get all excited by the bells and whistles that big box call centers show you. The huge facilities, the amazing recreational rooms are all fine and dandy but at the end of the day, their employees pay are still taking a beating in order to finance the high infrastructure costs of these operations.

Test run call centers. Create competitive environments and allow the call center to prove their worth with performance and reliability. Your customers and business will be glad you did!

Obsessing about Customer experience

Obsessing about Customer experience

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Obsessing about Customer experience with a few employees is one thing, but if you’re looking to scale, focus on creating a structure that allows your employees to deliver a meaningful customer experience.

In reality, that’s easier said than done. Creating structure that allows employees to give a superior customer experience consistently and maintain that level of excellence in scale is a big undertaking.

If you ask most company leaders they’ll tell you they want to give a great customer experience. Employees also want to give a great customer experience. Lets face it, we’re all customers. The thought of treating others as we would want to be treated is great. So why do companies fail so miserably so many times?

We’re not all the same.

Yes, the end goal is we all want to feel good/satisfied interacting with a company, but what we consider good/satisfied is not necessarily the same for another person. What motivates one person does not necessarily motivate another. What one wants, isn’t necessarily what another wants. There has to be different ways of helping people in order to achieve the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction, or as we say here at GuateCall, “Meeting and exceeding expectations.”

Creating a great product or offering a certain service takes time, effort, training, fine tuning and constantly looking for ways to improve. Creating the customer experience we want to deliver takes the same amount of consistent planning, training and effort. The kicker is most companies are good at bringing a product or service into the market. They may be good at promoting and selling the product and even servicing the product, but as the company grows there is a strain in management’s time and so most of the energy is placed on sales and marketing. Customer service or experience is usually left for people to patch together as a reaction to growth needs. Usually this patch has a general training, key metrics that need to be hit and a QA system that rewards or punishes the customer service representatives based on adherence to key elements of the interaction with the customer. As customer complaints rise, CSAT scores and other measurements are added. More reward and punishment naturally follows and at this point the customer service representatives are more interested in reaching their bonus and protecting their job than they are delivering a great customer experience.

Being customer focused is no different than bringing products or services to market.

  • It takes effort.
  • It takes time.
  • It takes a commitment to excellence.
  • It takes building a culture that encourages the customer experience to be a priority.

Most companies do not have the level of experience or staffing necessary to create such an environment.

Outsourcing to a company that specializes in creating the customer service experience is a great way to increase customer satisfaction while continuing to focus on what the company does best. At GuateCall, we have years of experience delivering superior services. Our team will work hand in hand with yours to create the processes necessary to become a seamless part of the organization.

This article is written by Perry Silber. Perry Silber is one of the founders of GuateCall. GuateCall is a nearshore contact center located in Guatemala Central America / Latin America. Our location allows us the ability to increase our service levels while still being priced competitively. If you would like to learn more about our call center and its bilingual English and Spanish services in voice, chat or email, reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com .

Bilingual Outsourced Call Center Services – GuateCall

Bilingual Outsourced Call Center Services – GuateCall

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What are Outsourced Call Center Services?

Outsourced call center services are a cost-efficient and scalable way to create a customer centric, high quality customer service department. Customer centric outsourced call center services is a way of doing business with your customers that creates a positive customer experience before and after the sale in order to drive repeat business, customer loyalty and profits. Whether a business is looking to provide inbound customer service, create a customer retention program, follow up on new inquiries or prospects, outsourced call centers provide solutions for these types of services and more.

Virtually any business process you can do by phone, web or email can be outsourced to a call center services provider. Call center services can help companies extend your reach into new markets, provide a more effective and stronger customer support or even retain your existing customers. Outsourced call center services providers offer all the above services while minimizing staffing and overhead costs.

What Call Center Is Best for Your Business?

When selecting the right call center services company for your business, make sure the call center can provide the focus necessary to help your company succeed. Cost and customer service play an important role in the selection of the call center services company. Ask yourself how much focus will the call center put on your business based on their size and the percentage of business your company represents to the company. This, more likely than not, will have a big impact on the level of service your company will receive. Look for a call center that is the right size for the outsourcing support you project.

How Will Our Outsourced Call Center Services Help?

GuateCall’s call center services company is located nearshore in Guatemala City Central America. We offer Bilingual English Spanish call center services which help small businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies. We improve their customer support and offer a scalable solution built to handle high call, email and chat volumes. If your company is looking to offer a high end customer centric call center services offering, you owe it to your company to give us a call.

Why Pick Us Over Other Outsourced Call Center Services?

Simple:  Quality, Service, Price!          

In countless times, we have outperformed our customer’s other outsourced call center providers and even their in house team. We help find new solutions and create a higher standard for performance in the call center.

Our attention to detail and performance comes with higher CSAT scores as well. We believe that performance must be aligned with customer satisfaction and our Quality Assurance processes and continual training is developed to meet those standards.

Our Outsourced Call Center is located nearshore in Guatemala, Central America. Located nearshore allows us to offer a more attractive price than outsourced call center providers in the U.S. We are also able to expand our Team Lead to call center agent ratio as well as have a more robust Quality Assurance staff in order to maintain the highest standards.

To Top It All Off- We’re Bilingual

Our bilingual English Spanish call center services are an additional benefit of selecting our call center. Guatemala is known as having a neutral English and Spanish accent and we offer the bilingual service without an additional hourly charge.

The more you learn about our call center services, the more you’ll see that GuateCall is the right choice for your outsourcing needs. Contact us today and learn more!

This article is written by Perry Silber. Perry Silber is one of the founders of GuateCall. GuateCall is a nearshore contact center located in Guatemala Central America/ Latin America. Our outsourced call center solutions offers multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish call center services. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and its services in voice, chat or email in both English and Spanish, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com .

Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Call Center Services

Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Call Center Services

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There are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing call center services. Outsourcing is a business practice used by many companies to reduce costs, improve efficiency or when outsourced correctly both. This is accomplished by using external third party vendors to do tasks normally done by internal staff.

How does a company decide whether call center outsourcing is right for it? Each company should create an advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing list. Put advantages on one side, disadvantages on the other and see what’s best. Sometimes you will find that you should outsource all call center services. Sometimes you will see an advantage in keeping certain processes in house and outsourcing other processes. Each company needs to decide what’s best for it based on their circumstances and business targets.

Here are a few Advantages and Disadvantages of outsourcing call center services. Its important to keep in mind that what is an advantage for one company could be a disadvantage for another:

  • Outsourcing enables companies to focus their attention on their core competencies.
  • Outsourcing saves money. When calculating the cost of management, overheard, technology, training, space, payroll, hiring, firing, taxes incidentals and more, outsourcing to a call center lowers the overall cost of operations.
  • Outsourcing to a call center that specializes in certain tasks allows for operational efficiencies. This will not only save money, but increase customer satisfaction, revenue and the like.
  • Outsourcing call center services to a legitimate company, allows the benefit of using up to date technology. Technology is constantly changing and legitimate outsourcing companies have IT management on staff to keep up with the changes.
  • Since the main resource of outsourcing is people, outsourcing service providers focus their attention on recruiting, training and maintaining good people. This allows companies the flexibility to scale quickly and to focus their energy on other tasks.

It’s important to have a proper strategy in place to minimize disadvantages of outsourcing call center services such as:

  • Sharing company data with an outsource provider
  • Losing control of daily activity that is being outsourced
  • Partnering with a call center that does not adhere to the same standards in terms of quality of service, adherence to policies and other sensitive aspects of the business
  • Being a small fish in a big pond. Since the call center has other customers, there is the need to make sure that the business receives the proper attention from the management and staff to meet and exceed expectations
  • Lack of cultural understanding of the customer and even lack of understanding the culture of the business being represented can alter the image the company is trying to project.

From my experience, the majority of disadvantages are due to poor site selection and lack of planning. Though there are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing services, the many benefits that outsourcing brings far outweigh its disadvantages.

Once you have decided on outsourcing call center services, it’s important to decide on the correct call center for your company. There is outsourcing onshore, nearshore and offshore. There are advantages and disadvantages to all three such as cost, cultural affinity, ease of understanding and quality of service. Learn more about choosing a call center here: https://guatecall.com/how-to-choose-the-right-outsourced-call-center/

If bilingual skills are important, it would also be a good opportunity to select a location that can handle the language without a need to increase labor wages. An example would be if needing bi-lingual English Spanish call center services, it would be best to outsource nearshore where the Spanish language would be readily available.

My biggest advice when choosing a call center would be to partner with a management team that shares the same vision as you and understands the needs of your company. Together you can create an action plan and constantly fine tune it to meet and exceed the company’s targets. Feel free to reach out to me to speak more in depth about this or other outsourcing topics.

This article is written by Perry Silber. Perry Silber is one of the founders of GuateCall. GuateCall is a nearshore contact center located in Guatemala Central America/ Latin America. Our contact center solutions offers multi-channel bilingual English and Spanish call center services. If you would like to learn more about GuateCall and its services in voice, chat or email in both English and Spanish, please reach out to me at 713-474-2222 or by e-mail perry@guatecall.com .